April 24, 2012

Romo says the hits haven't caught up to him yet. So how long can he play? '15 more years, maybe' he jokes

Tony Romo turned 32 last week, and he knows that’s close to the age that the hits start affecting pro football players.

But maybe for him, it’ll wait a little longer.

“I think that I didn’t start playing in the league at 22, 23,” he said. “... so I think I’ll probably have a lot of that stuff later on. That probably starts creeping in about 34, 35. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it until a little later than that before you start feeling that.”

Romo spoke to reporters Tuesday at Valley Ranch, talking about the Cowboys’ offseason. He was asked how much longer he wants to play.

“I haven’t thought about not playing the game,” he said. “You wake up so many mornings just, ‘How can I get better at football today?’ That’s really the No. 1 thing that kind of goes about in your brain. Then, you go out and do that. For me, I don’t know.”

He paused, then smiled.

“Fifteen more years, maybe?”

It drew a laugh from the assembled media, but Romo did say that when he feels like he is not getting better, he’ll think about it.

“It would be very hard to know that I’m not as good as you once were,” he said. “The exciting part for me is to know that I’m getting better every year. I’m doing things every year that I was not able to do – and you always pick out a few things, but the overall little stuff, you just continue to get better. … And then you really perfect an art of trying to focus on a couple things that can really take your game to the next level, and I think that’s helped me a lot these last few years, and it’s continued to grow, and I think I’m starting to play at a level I feel will give us a great chance to continue to be successful.”